A blogger has started a new blog in our defense already.
He goes by the name of Joseph McCarthy and has started a blog called “Censor This” with an address of http://childporn.wordpress.com. (No, there is no child porn there, he’s making a statement with that url.)
Thank you, Mr. McCarthy, for coming to our rescue. A very long peek above our garters to you.
His very first post is entitled WordPress Censors Erotic Literature and Discussion.
He takes a good look at the Terms Of Service at WordPress, and shows that we have violated no rules therein.
WordPress has censored at least two blogs—UDreamOfJanie and Kissing Corporal Kate—containing writing of an adult nature. However, they contain no libelous content, no graphic nudity, no misleading tags or categories.
The WordPress Terms of Service offer little insight as to why.
You must not describe or assign keywords to your blog in a misleading or unlawful manner, including in a manner intended to trade on the name or reputation of others, and Automattic may change or remove any description or keyword that it considers inappropriate or unlawful, or otherwise likely to cause Automattic liability.
Well, the blogs aren’t named in a misleading or unlawful manner.
…the Content is not obscene or libelous, and does not violate the privacy or publicity rights of any third party…
Is the content obscene? Last I checked, people wrote and sold erotic literature all the time. We’re not talking mothers vivisecting their newborn babies here.
The Website may contain content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies, typographical mistakes, and other errors.
It seems that Automattic acknowledge that they are and will continue to host potentially offensive content.
Yet we have been removed from WordPress’ category pages on a whim.
Please stand up for us, we can’t even stand up for ourselves at WordPress, because no one can see our posts in the category pages or the Friend Surfer, an explicitly opt in service of WordPress.
We are being silenced for no reason, and we need you to make WordPress stop.
Please email Mark at support@wordpress.com. Tell him you disagree. Tell him to re-list our blogs.
Filed under: About, Blogs In Our MonkeySphere, Censorship, Equality, Erotica, Fundies, Literature, Literature and Literotica, Rants, Religion, Sex, UDoJ's Other Sites
I just received an email from Matt, of WordPress support. The original letter and reply are posted in full at Censor This.